A study on Diem and Aptos distributed ledger technology

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the paper, Diem Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Aptos blockchain data are examined. First, the paper presents a general overview of the Diem project from a technical point of view. Second, it presents a study that aims to collect and analyze data from the Diem and Aptos blockchain, in order to verify some properties declared in the technical paper. For instance, a relevant property of the Diem and Aptos blockchains is their transactions' throughput, i.e. the rate at which valid transactions are committed into a block by the Diem blockchain in a one-second interval of time (transactions per second, TPS) and the interval of time for a transaction to be confirmed. In the case of the Diem blockchain, the data were collected over three months (January 1–March 31, 2022) while in the case of the Aptos blockchain, the data were collected over a month (December 1 - December 31, 2022). These data can be found on a GitHub repository that is publicly accessible. The results of the data analysis show that the average transactions' throughput is about 60 TPS and the waiting time is on average 1 minute and 40 seconds. Moreover, the paper sheds light on some Diem features that are unique when compared to similar blockchains, such as Ethereum. Some of these unique features are the consensus mechanism based on the BFT consensus protocols (Byzantine Fault Tolerance, 2017), its accounting system based on a hierarchical model and its programming language, Move, used to code smart contracts. Through this study, the capabilities of both Diem and Aptos blockchains will be explored in more depth.